To The Editor:
Brewgrass Fest at Sugarbush has been one of my favorite early summer activities in The Valley. I may never go again.
I first went to Brewgrass Fest in 2017. My wife and I tried to go in 2016 shortly after we moved to The Valley but it was sold out, as tickets went fast for such a fun and tasty event. I still dream of the fried softshell crab sandwiches I had that first year. Yes, they were so good I had two.
Pretty sure I paid $35 for 10 drink tickets, plus the cost of those melt-in-your-mouth crab sammies.
Boy do times change. . . To go to the festival this year, one needs to pay $95 for a single ticket. One. Ticket. But don't worry, the extra $60 over 2017 prices will get you two extra drink tickets that you probably shouldn't use if you intend to drive home at all that day.
The $95 also covers lunch, but who cares? Especially if soft-shelled crab isn't involved. Take lunch out of the ticket price and let me eat at a food truck with cash.
Let's do some math. Twelve 5-ounce drinks is basically 4 pints of beer. For $95 I could go to a nice restaurant and also drink too much beer. Give me four beers ($40), an entree ($30), and a dessert ($10), and I'd still have $15 left over for a tip.
What's up with the huge price increase? Inflation isn't that bad. I can't imagine that many locals will be at this event, and that's sad. I understand that in previous years the excuse for the price hike was the limited attendance with COVID. That seems like less of an issue now, plus it's outside. I also noticed a couple things this year: 1) Brewgrass tickets have not sold out quickly, and 2) they initially limited attendance to 300 but recently increased that to 450. Good for Sugarbush that they can maximize profits by continuing to raise the attendance limit, but too bad it comes at the cost of community members' involvement and enjoyment.
Dylan Frazer
Waitsfield
